7th Digital Finance Summit: BLOCKCHAIN | PAYMENTS | IDENTITY | FINTECH | CYBERSECURITY | AI

February 7, 2020

The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information’s 7th Digital Finance Summit brings together some of the world’s leading experts and regulators to discuss the innovation and trends impacting financial ecosystems around the world.

Attendees will learn about the impact of blockchain technology, crypto-currencies, and fintech on payments, banking, and compliance. Fintech investors and innovators will provide insight into what they see as the trending focus areas.

Expert panels will discuss the implications of new cybersecurity threats, the needs for new types of regulations, new identity systems, as well as emerging technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

Cybersecurity and Gender

February 27, 2020

A discussion of cybersecurity issues relating to gender, such as those faced by women.

Regulatory Sandboxes: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead

March 10, 2020

This webinar will:

  • examine and explore the operation of regulatory sandboxes, also known as fintech sandboxes, appearing around the globe
  • enumerate and summarize some lessons learned during the first few years of operations
  • peer ahead at the future and discuss what is appearing on the horizon

Virtual Roundtable: Trends in Anti-Money Laundering and Fraud

March 26, 2020

Topics of coverage:

  • AML/CFT
  • Fraud
  • blockchain
  • crypto-currency
  • regulation and regulatory responses

Bottlenecks or Grace Under Pressure: The Telecom and Internet Infrastructure’s Performance Under the Coronavirus Shock

April 30, 2020

As the global quarantine caused by COVID-19 continues, internet usage for work, personal communications, and entertainment has soared. While the networks around the globe have held up for the first month, cracks have started to show. As a result, European regulators have asked Netflix and YouTube to reduce quality to lighten bandwidth consumption. Similarly, companies are advising employees to turn off their cameras during web conferencing to reduce usage. 

The Impact of COVID-19 on Investments in Media and ICT

May 14, 2020

This webinar will address the following:

  • In the short-term, what level of funding do media and ICT companies need to survive and  grow again? 
  • Is private funding available in today’s environment?  
  • What kind of long-term investments are likely to be on the private and public agendas?
  • Is there a role for public investments? 
  • What are the lessons from 2008/9?
  • If stimulus funding is provided, what types of media should receive it? Should it be critical broadband infrastructure providers to upgrade and expand their reach? Or declining industries such as newspapers that play a role in a societal crisis? Or users? Should there be restrictions and conditions placed on support?

The Role of Digital Payments and Cryptocurrencies in the Coronavirus Crisis: A Reality Check

May 28, 2020

This webinar will address the following:

  • What has been the role of blockchain-based transactions in the crisis?
  • Why have crypto-currencies not taken off in the global downturn, and why have they followed the downwards market sentiment of fiat-based currencies and assets? 
  • Where do advanced digital financial services go from here?  Who will be the winners? 
  • What are the regulatory implications and possibilities for enabling the potential use of blockchain technology and crypto currencies in providing aid to the unemployed and small businesses through a digital dollar?
  • How can new blockchain-based financial instruments such as central bank digital currencies help macro-economic activities of governments and central banks? 
  • What are the resilience and design lessons for blockchain and crypto-currency mining after the many China-based crypto-currency miners closed or scaled back operations?
  • How can blockchain technology assist in supply chain management of personal protection equipment and other critical medical supplies?
  • With many state unemployment systems still using 1960-era COBOL, is this a chance to leapfrog and implement blockchain for these systems?

The Transformation of the Classroom: Digital Learning After Covid

June 25, 2020

Schools around the world have canceled in-person instruction. And the question now is what education will look like in the future, and what the future role of online education will look like.  This webinar will address the following:

  • What regulations and policies need to be changed or adopted to enhance distance learning?
  • How distance learning is being accelerated by the Covid-19 outbreak?
  • How to address the digital divide issues?
  • What the effects of distance learning on networks?
  • For K-12 in the U.S., does distant learning mean the end of localism for education, and the imposition of nationwide standards?

The Short-Term and Long-Term Impact of COVID-19 on Tele-Medicine

July 9, 2020

In 2020 the global pandemic has required stay-at-home orders, and hospitals have become inundated with cases.  Patients have had to skip non-essential doctor visits because of offices having been closed, or to avoid possible exposure to Covid-19. To deal with this, there has been a surge in the use of telehealth services. In March 2020 alone, there was a 50% jump in the number of patients using a telemedicine service instead of going to a doctor in person. In US?  some analysts predict almost 1 billion virtual doctor visits in 2020.  As this acceleration takes place, there are several issues to be examined. This webinar will address the following:

  • What are the major regulatory barriers slowing adoption of tele-medicine?
  • Are there new privacy issues?
  • Is there a role for governmental investment in telemedicine? 
  • After return to some normalcy, what will be the role of T-m? 
  • Does this create a two-tiered health system, where more affluent patients receive in-person care while poorer patients are pushed to virtual visits? Or is it the other way around?
  • How will outsourcing be handled?  Can doctors from out-of state and other countries be used?
  • What effects will T-m have on the ICT infrastructure?   
  • What kind of problems have been encountered as TM scaled up?

Approaches to Financial Regulation/Innovation for a Post-Pandemic Recovery

August 13, 2020

Regulators globally have recognized the significant impacts that the spread of COVID-19 may have on the markets, organizations, and consumers. New regulations and approaches may also be needed. Concurrently, organizations are navigating new compliance, security and operational challenges. Both though see an opportunity for innovation to address the new normal of increased contact-free work and social environments and need for using technology to assist consumers in secure, safe and timely access to funds and credit. This discussion will identify common New York State/US federal and global approaches, challenges and solutions.

8th Digital Finance Summit: Financial Services in the Age of COVID-19

August 20, 2020

The 8th Digital Financial Services Summit draws on emerging trends in financial ecosystems in the developed and developing world and investigates the intersection of centralized legacy and new decentralized financial ecosystems. Distributed ledger (blockchain) technology may democratize access to services through tokenization of assets and use of private and state-led crypto-currencies, augmenting digital financial services and payments that are the mainstay of financial systems around the world. 

Summit sessions will address how to make access to finance more accessible, secure, certain and affordable, and how access to these systems is made secure by improved cyber security and cyber-resilience initiatives and more robust identity verification mechanisms, privacy controls, and enhanced anti money laundering efforts.

5G Private Networks: Applications in Smart Factories and Communications

November 19, 2020

This conference will introduce 5G private networks and provide specific cases of how these networks operate.

Empirical Research on the Impact of Recent Spectrum Auctions on the Market Structure of Mobile Communications

December 1, 2020

Presenters:

  • “Auctions and Mobile Market Competition: Evidence from European 4G Auctions,” Dan Ershov, (U of Toulouse), and David Salant (Columbia Institute for Tele-Information and U of. Toulouse)
  • “License Complementarity and Package Bidding: The U.S Spectrum Auctions,” Mo Xiao (U of Arizona) and Zhe Yuan (Ali Baba)
  • “Unobservable heterogeneity and identification in games: An application to mobile telecommunications,” Mathieu Marcoux, (U of Montreal)

Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework Pre-Release Introduction, Tutorial and Q&A

December 15, 2020

CITI’s DFSO has created a process-based tool for participants in financial transactions, with preventative and reactive components based on international standards. Our A-RMF brings together best practices, legal requirements, and future needs into a guided process with recommendations on how to best implement these concepts into the various layers of the DFS ecosystem. This cybersecurity risk management framework is now being released and made freely available. The webinar will provide specifics to interested parties.